The Princess and The Scavenger
by dappersquid
Summary: Rey is there to catch Leia when she falls.
1. Chapter 1

Rey wasn't sure it was her place. She wasn't sure of her place in any of _this_.

Certainly _someone_ was with the grieving woman tonight.

After all, Rey had been at her own friend's side until a medic had shooed her away with promises of hourly updates-and of the feast currently taking place in the mess.

Hunger had won out in the end—just like celebration had over mourning given the rowdy atmosphere in the base.

But it was the absence of the Resistance's leader that had led Rey to pocket a doughy roll for later and to search the nearest terminal for a schematic of the base's layout.

It was the sound of shattering glass and rending metal from down the corridor that set her measured pace to a run, the anguished cry barely muffled by the bulkhead that set her fist to pounding on the door, her pulse to drumming in her ears.

"General Organa! Are you alright?"

The space around her was suddenly so quiet that Rey was left questioning her senses. Another vision? Some long locked-away memory skirting to the surface?

 _No_. It had been real. She had heard- _had felt_ -that cry.

One palm laid impatiently on the chime to the General's quarters, the other against the door as Rey called once more, "General— _Leia_ , open the door."

Nothing.

Rey studied the keypad that controlled the door and seconds later pried the casing off, snatching a wire from a circuit with a curse as a shock of current bit at her finger.

The door to General Leia Organa's quarters slid open and Rey closed her eyes as another current crept across her skin and pricked at the back of her mind-so much grief-guilt-anger-so much.

When she stepped into the room, the air fairly stung with the after effects-the Force-an outpouring of it, as strong as any Rey had ever felt. She sensed that she had just missed the chaotic upheaval, that the debris now littering the room had once been clothes, mementos.

And in the midst of this chaos, the woman who had stood so resolute in the hectic waves of pilots and medics earlier that day, collapsing in on herself.

"General?"

Back towards Rey, the figure didn't respond, just stayed hunched over, arms wrapped tightly around her chest.

For the first time Rey noticed how small the older woman was.

Rey's fingers ghosted over her back, barely making contact, when a hoarse voice said, "I'd like to be alone."

Rey pulled her hand away but left it hovering between them, offered, "I could find Chewbacca if you'd rather-"

A strangled sound, something like a laugh, cut her off.

"Just ask and get it over with."

"Ask?" For what? Rey thought. Did the General think she expected some sort of reward or payment, that her motives had been mercenary?

"I don't-"

The defense died on her lips as the older woman suddenly turned to face her.

Her eyes.

 _He has his mother's eyes_.

"A week ago you would have given anything for a family—any family," Leia stated, flatly. "But what answer do you want to hear now?"

Rey felt the uncharacteristic sting of threatening tears.

"I'll go," she murmured, knew she should, but stood locked in place, waiting for Leia to pick at the wound she'd found. She stared at the floor, noticed for the first time that she was standing on something beautifully blue.

"Now—you've looked into our heart." _Words like nails scratching at a scab_. Rey didn't flinch when Leia's fingers gripped her chin, relented and looked down into her eyes again. "And you want to know if you'll see that same dark face staring back at you from a mirror one day." _Fingers worrying their way between skin and twisting_.

"Stop."

"If you were a Skywalker, the kindest thing anyone could have done for you is leave you on that godsforsaken planet and forget about you," Leia hissed. "You should thank them."

 _Alone, alone, alone_ —the feeling beat in her head like a drum. A wave of nausea rolled over her. Too much defeat and self-loathing and guilt to swallow down. _I made them leave me and never come back. I am broken. I am toxic._

Rey squeezed her eyes shut against a storm of dust, breathed in and choked.

 _These were days on Jakku, each one relentlessly tallied._

 _This was the inky void of space and infinitesimal dust buffeting a view screen as if it hadn't been her whole world seconds before._

Rey stumbled back. It was easier to jerk Leia's hand away from her face, harder to lose the grip she had on her mind.

Rey swiped with the back of her hand at the tears staining her cheek.

"What about you?" she rasped. "You want to ask me if I looked into _his_ mind and saw _why_."

Rey took a step closer, used her height to her advantage. It should have been intimidating but all she saw in Leia's face was anticipation.

"I _know_ what you want to hear," she said. "You want me to tell you that it's all your fault—that you made him that monster." Rey's shoulders sank; she could barely get out the words: "That monster who killed his father."

Leia's chin tilted up.

Rey recognized the gesture for what it was—not defiance, but defeat. A wounded animal baring its throat for the killing blow.

"I can't," Rey whispered.

The cry that broke through Leia, piercing and primal, shattered against Rey's shoulder as the young woman wrapped her arms around her for the second time that day. This time there were no quiet words of comfort, just a desperate clutching and wailing.

Rey broke Leia's fall to the floor, folding her legs under them and sinking with her to the ground.

* * *

Leia's grief was violent in a way Rey remembered from half recalled dreams-struggling to hold onto a hand that slipped away from hers, night after night.

There were never any faces, just arms holding her back and a figure retreating into the dark. She can't imagine what the sorrow would have been like if she had known the faces of those she waited in vain for every day. But she could feel it now in Leia. She could see fragments-that cocky grin tossed over his shoulder, tiny fingers grasping at her braid, her own face distorted and reflected back in a helmet as dark as space itself.

* * *

Rey's legs had long since gone numb beneath her when Leia's breathing finally calmed into discordant tremors.

* * *

The automated lights seemed overly bright when they flickered on again as Leia moved away from her and stood.

She took the hand Leia offered, crossed the room and crawled up after her into the bed without question.

* * *

The wracking sobs began again as Leia buried her face in the crook of Rey's neck, just as she had on the tarmac hours ago. Only this time Rey could feel the pinch of fingernails through her clothes as Leia clung to her.

Her own hand was anchored between Leia's shoulder blades. When the pauses between the other woman's breaths were too long, Rey held her tighter, concentrated on the connection that had drawn her straight from the _Falcon_ and into this stranger's embrace, until another breath shuddered out against her throat.

* * *

Instinct had driven her this far but Rey had no idea what to do with herself once Leia was finally asleep.

It was a pathetic thing to admit, but she had never slept this close to another person before, not that she could remember, and her limbs suddenly felt too long, her breathe too loud.

Trying to control her breathing only seemed to make it worse, her heart beat faster.

Over Leia's shoulder she could see a storage locker twisted in a way that would have been beautiful if not for the frightening force of will that had given it shape.

When she exhaled, her breath troubled the tendrils of hair that had escaped Leia's braid. She leaned forward a fraction until her lips brushed across it.

Leia's hair smelled sweet. It reminded her of the air in the forest on Takodana.

That thought set a knot of guilt in her chest.

* * *

Rey had no idea where she was. She scuttled backwards in a panic until she fell.

It was a short fall and enough to focus her senses.

 _Leia_.

Leia was sitting on the edge of the bed, a hand covering her face.

She could sense the anxiety coming from Leia like a high frequency hum and had no idea how to quiet it.

Rey scuffed her boot over the cluttered floor, the debris enough to have put a glint in even Unkar's eyes.

"You were pretty thorough," Rey observed, hopefully, if a little awkwardly. "But some of this could be recycled . . . melted down."

Rey picked up what had caught her eye last night-a dress made of fabric that flowed between her fingers. It probably cost more than a year's rations, maybe two.

It was the same shade as the oceans she had so long imagined.

"What color is this?"

Leia glanced over her shoulder, looked from the dress to Rey's face and raised an eyebrow.

"Blue."

Rey felt her cheeks burn. She didn't check the irritation in her voice when she said, "I know it's 'blue.' But what shade of blue? What's it called? I've read so many different names for blue—azure, lapis, cerulean—but seeing it . . ."

"Indigo."

"It's lovely." Rey draped the dress carefully on the corner of the bed, smoothing out what damage she could. _Indigo_ —the oceans surrounding the island are indigo.

"It is," Leia agreed.

Rey looked up to see Leia staring at her with the same focus she'd seen her devote to the star charts yesterday in the command room.

It made her stomach flip in the strangest way.

Leia stood, kneaded her fingers into a kink in her shoulder, and declared, "You need a bath and breakfast."

Rey's hand instinctively reached for her bag and the food she'd secreted away last night.

"Breakfast first I guess."

Rey found she didn't mind the teasing quirk of Leia's eyebrow when it was paired with the faint glint of humor in her eyes.

"I've never managed to recruit any great chefs, so the meals are pretty standard, but you can get food from the mess whenever you want."

"Thank you."

Leia nodded.

"I should check on Finn."

Even to Rey it sounded more like a question than a statement. She needed some sort of assurance that Leia would be alright, even if just for now, before she could leave.

"Tell Doctor Kalonia I said to let you stay with him as long as you like."

 _That would have to do_.

Rey started to leave, only to feel Leia's fingers grab her wrist as she passed.

"And, Rey . . ." Leia's hand slipped to thread their fingers together. "Thank you."


	2. Chapter 2

Although Leia's quarters appeared more Spartan than perhaps they were before, the essentials seemed to have been put neatly back in place-and that had to be a good sign.

The fact that Leia hadn't responded to the chime of her door again and Rey knew she was there wasn't such a good omen.

Even though she had worried about getting caught prying into systems she had no business sifting through, she was relieved now that she had retrieved the code accessing the general's quarters. The panel she'd broken the night before had already been replaced. Rey had to admire that even in the wake of near annihilation at the hands of the First Order's Starkiller, the heart of the Resistance seemed to be running as efficiently as ever.

Maybe Leia was fine.

She'd looked tired earlier today in the command room and Rey had still sensed that not-quite-right static emanating from her but no one else had seemed to notice. The general had been quietly issuing orders, reviewing what had been lost the day before, and sending messages to the scattered remnants of the Republic for reinforcements.

Maybe Leia was just avoiding her.

But she'd made eye-contact with Rey when Rey had given the room a brief status report on repairs to the Millennium Falcon, had nodded and given her a quick smile when Rey had added, "But she could be in the air today if she had to."

Maybe she was just overreacting.

"Are you going to make a habit of breaking into my quarters?"

Rey started at the voice, narrowly avoided a squeak of surprise.

So much for natural-born instincts.

"Sorry," she offered, following in the direction the voice had come from. "I tried the chime but you didn't respond. I thought-"

All the reasonable, valid explanations suddenly slipped from her mind as she stepped through an open doorway and realized where she was.

* * *

She'd only read about rooms like this.

A day's scavenge could buy you a few minutes in a fresher on Jakku.

She'd never seen this much pure water in her life.

Her mind was caught somewhere between being horrified at what a waste of resources this was and completely captivated by way the water in the ceramic tub rippled against Leia's skin.

"You thought you might find another scene like last nights'?"

Rey nodded absently.

"I'm sorry about that. Sorry for what I said . . . if I frightened you . . ."

Leia stared down into the water. Her hair was wet and tucked behind her ears. When she spoke, the water lapped at her shoulders and the top of one knee.

"Rey?"

Rey skimmed her hand over the top of the water, dipped her fingers just enough to trail through it, utterly mesmerized at the sensation.

"Not a lot of water on Jakku from what I've heard."

"No."

Rey's index finger grazed over the damp skin of Leia's knee.

"There's nothing like this on Jakku."

"There aren't many of these on this base either. One of the little indulgences I allowed myself when designing these quarters. Most of the rooms just have showers."

It was only when the general started to ramble on about water efficiency that Rey realized what her hand was doing and quickly pulled it away to wipe at the tail of her tunic.

Her face felt like it was on fire and it took more self-control than she'd like to admit not to turn and run from the room.

She wasn't sure how she could join the Resistance and also, somehow, never see its leader ever again.

"Give me a minute?" Leia suggested, looking a little flushed herself.

Whether Leia was angry at her or it was the heat of the bath, Rey couldn't be sure.

* * *

The minute was more like ten and when the older woman emerged, she was tying the belt of a long robe over her standard issue sleepwear-a tank top and boxer briefs made of some non-descript waffled fabric.

Rey remembered a staffer giving her the same yesterday-along with a uniform-and dropping them on a cot she'd been issued in barracks she hadn't been back to since.

Leia's hair was still wet and Rey realized for the first time just how long it was, falling to skim her lower back, how much darker it looked now-wondered how heavy it must be.

Rey shifted her weight from one foot to the other, prepared herself for whatever lecture about personal space Leia was about to give her.

What she didn't expect was for Leia to look at her wryly and say, "You aren't getting into my bed with those boots and sandy clothes."

Leia pulled back the covers on the bed for emphasis.

"I won't send these sheets to the laundry again tomorrow morning."

Rey grinned; she wasn't going to be sent away, would get to spend at least another night with Leia safely beside her.

Rey frowned. What was she supposed to wear if not her clothes?

"Top drawer. They won't be a perfect fit but they'll do."

Rey hoped Leia couldn't actually read her mind, but she also hoped her face wasn't that easy to read either.

* * *

She toed off her boots with as much grace as she could muster, peaked back over her shoulder to see Leia settled under the sheets, her attention on the data-pad in her hand and not on Rey.

Rey tugged her leggings off and replaced them with the sleep shorts she'd found; she stripped her tunic off with equal speed, quickly replacing it with the tank top.

It was a little less than she was used to wearing but it was certainly more than Leia had been wearing earlier. Not that she'd really seen anything. The water had obscured almost everything.

And not that she should want to see more of the other woman.

But she couldn't help but think back on how soft the skin on Leia's knee had been, how soft and warm Leia would be tonight if she curled against her the way she had last night.

Last night.

Any unfamiliar, selfish flicker of attraction was snuffed out at the memory of how Leia had cried herself into a fitful sleep. But if having Rey next to her meant that she'd rest again tonight, even a little, Rey would gladly do it, but . . .

Was she supposed to just crawl right into the bed? Did Leia want her to hold her? And did she even do that right last night?

Maybe Leia just wanted someone in the room with her, needed some sort of buoy against the loneliness.

Should she tell Leia she was finished changing?

She was certain she shouldn't leave her clothes lying on the floor. She picked them up and held them against her chest.

Leia's attention shifted from the report to her. She smiled and Rey wanted to reach out and touch the tiny little lines that feathered at the corners of her eyes, wanted to feel lines etched-at least in part-from laughing instead of baked in by a remorseless sun and unrelenting toil.

Leia patted a spot on the bed beside her, said, "Please," and Rey dropped her clothes back onto the floor.

* * *

Even with the overheads out, Rey could see Leia's outline in the soft light the computer terminal cast across the room. She could follow the curve of her shoulder, her hip, as Leia lay with her back towards her.

Rey's fingers threaded through Leia's hair, curling a strand around her index finger then releasing it. She felt a blunting of the restless aura that surrounded Leia, drew another strand through her fingers.

"I don't usually sleep with it wet."

Rey stopped, drawing her hand up to her own chest.

"I didn't say you had to stop."

Rey propped herself up on one elbow and smiled down at Leia even though she knew it was too dark for her to see. She concentrated on circling another long strand around her finger then running her thumb and index finger down the length until a bead of water flowed out onto her thumb.

She sucked the water from her thumb into her mouth.

She could have sworn she saw Leia shiver.

"It feels nice."

She was sure she saw Leia's back move as she laughed and said, "It isn't too bad from my end either."

* * *

Some internal clock told Rey that they'd been lying there for almost two hours, exhausted but neither one quite asleep.

"Am I doing it right?"

Rey wasn't sure she had spoken out loud until Leia asked, "Doing what right?"

Her voice was the slightest bit slurred as if she might have been on the edge of sleep and Rey regretted the question even more.

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do."

Maybe Leia wasn't the only one who needed a buoy. But wouldn't two drowning people only sink faster?

Leia turned to face her.

Her voice had a panicked edge to it that made Rey want to cry as she said, "Rey, this isn't—"

But then she stopped, stopped and laid her hand on the side of Rey's face and there was that tugging at her chest, the brush like a breeze at her mind.

"Come here."

Leia's voice wrapped just as solidly around Rey as her arm did around her shoulder.

Leia laid back and guided Rey's head towards her chest. She settled Rey's arm over her stomach.

"Just put your arm where it feels comfortable."

Rey's arm tightened around Leia, finding a place just beneath the curve of her breast to tuck her hand.

She could hear Leia's heart beating, could feel the rise and fall of her breathing and the little circles her thumb was tracing on her bare shoulder.

When Rey mimicked the motion, her thumb caught the underside of Leia's breast. She whispered, "You're so soft," before she could censor herself and felt Leia's breath catch then release in a laugh.

"I think I'll take that as a compliment."

Leia's hand shifted to find Rey's thigh, hitched it over her own to settle them closer together.

"Close your eyes."

"When I close my eyes, I see . . . I don't know if they're nightmares or visions . . . memories. I see horrible things-and beautiful things."

"Which am I?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"Fair enough."

* * *

They were in much the same position when the chronometer buzzed and pulled Rey from a deep sleep.

She didn't open her eyes, just felt Leia shift to reach for the alarm then settle back down.

She felt Leia stroking her hair and lay as still as possible.

"I know you're awake."

She opened her eyes to see lighter, hazel eyes staring back at her. It almost didn't seem possible that they were the same eyes she had faced just a day before.

"You don't have to go on this mission, you know," Leia said suddenly, seriously. "Take the

Falcon-she's yours." Rey started to protest, but Leia shook her head. "Han would have wanted it."

Leia sat up, starting to push the sheets away, turning her back to Rey.

"You should get as far away from here as you can. Go to the outer rims. You're a smart girl; you'll be fine there-"

Rey raised to her knees, pressed herself tightly against Leia's back and wound her arms around her until Leia was quiet.

"All I have are questions," Rey explained.

She dropped her chin to Leia's shoulder.

"I need answers and there's only one person who can give them to me."

She felt Leia sigh, resigned.

"I don't know what Luke will tell you about your history or your family. But our connection," her voice wavered. "It feels different than what I feeI with Luke . . . or even Ben."

Leia's hands clasped over Rey's.

"I don't know who you are, Rey, but you don't have to be anything beyond who you are right now."

Rey let one hand fall to Leia's hip; the other moved to sweep the curtain of hair out of Leia's face as she promised, "I'm going to bring your brother back to you."

* * *

As the ramp closed behind her, Rey was as certain that she'd fulfill her promise to Leia as she was that the dress the general had been wearing when she told her goodbye was indigo.


	3. Chapter 3

Rey's known the fabled Luke Skywalker for about seven hours before he tells her that she doesn't have the patience to be a Jedi.

She tells him that the Resistance doesn't have another decade to wait on him and doesn't mention the five-thousand days she waited alone on Jakku.

He tells her he won't stop her if she stays.

* * *

She should have been sleeping better than ever, living the very fantasy that used to help her find her way there-the island, green and breeze-kissed, water lapping on all sides like a lullaby-but she doesn't.

She likes Luke but can't help but be disappointed in how little of his sister she sees in him.

* * *

If she concentrates she can feel something that she knows is Leia. Sometimes it's a hyper hum that has her tweaking systems on the ship for no good reason and exploring the heights of the island until her legs ache. Sometimes it spikes and burns so sharply that she's blinded until she blinks, once, twice.

* * *

It takes a month for Luke to tell Rey her story.

It takes another for Luke to tell Rey his own.

* * *

It's the dead of night when the Falcon touches down on D'Qar.

She can see Leia, flanked by C-3PO, both backlit from the hangar's spotlights.

* * *

She watches them stare at each other in silence for a long, awkward moment and then Leia launches herself into her brother's arms. He lifts her off the ground and she laughs.

It's the first time in two months that Rey has seen Luke smile.

It's been two months since she's seen Leia at all but she gives them distance and space, watching from the bay door as Chewie and R2 eventually join them and disappear inside.

* * *

She sits in the pilot's seat-her seat, she has to keep reminding herself-and draws a knee up to her chin. Her fingers toy with a strap on her boot and she watches the flight crew's lights slip away.

If she concentrates, she can feel content.

* * *

A soft caress at the back of her neck wakes her up.

She blinks up at Leia who's standing beside her chair, who smiles down at her and says, "I didn't mean to wake you up."

Rey squints against the sunlight pouring in through the view screen and Leia says, "It's morning . . . I thought you might join us last night."

The words are right on the tip of her tongue when Leia finishes for her: "But you didn't want to intrude."

"You hadn't seen each other in years."

"And now here he is-thanks to you."

Rey stretches her arms over her head and grins when Leia sits in the copilot's seat.

"You cut your hair," she suddenly says, finally taking in the absence of the braids, the light brown strands shot with gray that fall right to Leia's shoulders.

"You look tired and you've lost weight."

Leia laughs and mutters, "Flatterer," before leaning her head back against the seat and closing her eyes.

Later she says, "Your grandfather brought us all together. And I know almost nothing about his life."

When Leia mentions him, there's a finality, someone come and now gone. Luke still talks about him like he's just stepped out of the room.

She hasn't settled on a way to feel yet, other than cheated by the absence of "mother" and "father" in these stories, so she just sits quietly.

When Leia tilts her head in her direction, a piece of hair falls into her face. She frowns and goes to swipe it away when Rey stops her.

"I think I like your hair this way."

She tucks the wayward strand behind Leia's ear and Leia tilts her head again, brushing her cheek against Rey's hand.

* * *

Leia's lips brush over her palm and it's like someone opened a hatch in the dead of space and sucked all the air out of the ship.

Only in a good way.

* * *

Somehow she knows exactly what those lips will feel like on hers and Leia is pulling her closer, pressing their mouths together, so she has no doubt.


End file.
